14.07.2009

Three big cranes collapse

Three big cranes, two 250 tonners and a 350 tonner, collapsed yesterday in New Delhi while working at the city’s prestigious metro project.

Four cranes, the three above and a 400 tonner, were attempting to lift the main beam of a launcher crane that had collapsed on Sunday, while moving a 300 tonne section of concrete overpass into place,
Six people died and a furhter 13 were injured in that accident..
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The Grove TM2500 tipped, while the boom of a 350 tonner in the foreground sheared completely

As soon as the full weight of the beam was taken by the four cranes the boom of the first crane in the line up, a 250 tonner, literally snapped passing a greater share of the load onto the next crane a 350 tonne Krupp, whose boom also completely sheared off, the next crane down the line, a 250 tonne Grove TM2500 tipped sending its counterweight sections tumbling to the ground. The fourth crane the 400 tonner remained upright as its end of the beam had only been lifted a half a metre or so when the accident occurred.
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The aftermath of the accident

Click here to see a video of the accident
Click here to see second video
Click here to see news report and more video
Amazingly only five people, including a crane operator, recieved minor injures and were released from hospital during the day.
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A view from the other side, note the 400 tonner on the left

Local reports say that around 200 metro contract workers and engineers were at the site overseeing the removal of the debris from Sundays accident

New Delhi’s prestigious metro project has been dogged with high profile accidents as it is rushed for completion in time for the Commonwealth games in 2010.

Vertikal Comment

Carrying out a four crane tandem Lift of a long heavy distorted beam such as this, which is also hanging at a precarious angle, is incredibly tricky at the best of times and requires an enormous amount of planning to ensure that it is completed safely.

The alternative is to grossly over specify the crane capacities or use one or two extremely large ones. Even then a great deal of planning is required.

The launching crane collapsed on Sunday and bright and early on Monday a motley collection of relatively old telescopic cranes were assembled to lift the beam. They clearly wasted little time in sizing up the challenges and slung the load and started lifting. It is hard to understand where they were going with it?

The result? One of the most catastrophic crane accidents in years, at least in terms of equipment failure. It is a very rare accident in which 250 and 350 tonne crane booms simply ‘snap off’ but that is what happened on yesterday.

Thankfully and amazingly no one was seriously injured, perhaps because the whole thing looked precarious to all concerned and the hundreds on site kept well back?